Ok, enjoy and review guys, this was updated quickly, next update will be on Tuesday evening or sometime on Wednesday – Saphireanime out
On padded paws – Sirius mussed Harry's hair unconsciously, humming softly as he thought, both of their feet padding up the old staircase. He was such an adorable child, so polite, quiet, a bit too quiet, and loving, obedient, he did not know how anyone could hurt him. It took a special sort of evil to show such anger and hate towards a child barely more than an infant. He was so small, malnourished, shy, it may have permanent effects, if not physically then mentally. While Harry had bonded with him quickly, he still held his reservations. He still looked at him with the same wide eyed wonder and curiosity, he still flinched if he spoke louder than a murmur or made a sudden movement although he had accepted magic easily enough, which was peculiar.
He blinked as he noticed that Harry said something, he saw his lips move and heard what might have been his godson's whisper, he was ever so quiet, nothing like the confident James at all – but then James had had a happy childhood from birth. Sirius shook his head, "Harry?" he asked, blinking his thoughts away, "You say something?" He did not quite catch what it was that was said, and he really wished he did because the boy looked like he'd like nothing more than to run away, let alone repeat his words. Harry stopped walking, staring up at him with wide eyes, the wide green eyes that usually appraised him with wonder and awe and something which may morph into unconditional love soon no matter what, were now laced with fear.
Sirius stopped beside him, and gave him a queer look. "Harry?" He asked softly, kneeling down beside him, "Something wrong?" The child shook his head, black hair bouncing back and forth as he did so, covering his eyes slightly (he needed to give him a haircut) and continued to stare up at him, his mouth stubbornly closed shut. Sirius felt a small bubble of worry worm into his gut, it was definitely fear in his eyes, that was one emotion Harry needn't ever show because of him. He was not as hot-headed as he used to be, he'd never lose his temper with Harry and even if he did if the boy was naughty in later years he should know that he'd always love him – always. Harry opened his mouth once again, before shaking his head and (for the first time since they'd gotten here) sped away from Sirius at top speed.
Sirius gave the air before him a blank looking, silently wondering what the hell happened before his brain caught up with him. He sped up the stairs at a frightening speed. He was frightened, his cub was frightened, if he felt fear and the need to run then it should bloody well be to him, not from him. Of course, it was when he approached the door where he just knew Harry was hiding in, he paused. Because really, why would Harry have attached himself at the hip to Sirius then all of a sudden just run away with a horrified look on his face. Harry was a good hider, of course he would have learnt to be with the life he'd had up until now and this house was huge, Sirius actually had no idea where his godson had gone, the young boy was a fast little blighter.
What if Harry didn't want to talk to him? What if Harry was scared of him now because Sirius was a convict and he did not fancy the idea of living with him? Sirius doubted that Harry even knew that he was on the run; he'd not seen the news or read a paper (he doubted Harry could read that well given his age and neglect). But living with someone else was not going to be possible and no matter how freaked out he might be about Sirius he could never be as bad as Petunia and Vernon, Harry, even at his age, must know that. Sirius tapped his foot nervously on the ground, contemplating what Harry would do if once he found him before abruptly turning around. Maybe he just needed some time to himself; perhaps he'd just go downstairs and find some coffee…
He snorted to himself, he had not heard a more ridiculous thing in his life, he could not be afraid of a newly turned four year old! A point me spell would find him, but it would not be all that quick, a modified version of the spell then. "Find me Harry Potter," he said, and he closed his eyes to allow his magic to work. It stretched out from him and started to fly through the house at an impossible speed, scoping out every room far quicker than a person, even a wizard could. Suddenly he saw him in a corridor near the loft opposite a suit of armour, and there was something about that suit of armour that set off alarm bells. If he remembered correctly that suit had helped him master a spell because it was home to a – Sirius paled and apparated.
Sirius stood stock still when he arrived, he had gotten there a little late, there was Harry's uncle standing before him, he kept shouting 'freak' over and over again and the little boy was trying hard not to cry. Just as the man took off his belt and Sirius moved to take action Harry spoke up, "you're not here! You're gone, Siri said!" at the mention of his name the figure changed from his pig of an uncle to his godfather. It was a strange thing to be standing there, looking at oneself and Sirius also noted that if this was not Harry's fear then it was his. He was wearing an unfamiliar smirk, a smirk he had seen on Snape's face and on the face of Lucius, but never himself, perhaps James once in a while, but never himself.
Fake Sirius laughed a low, harsh chuckle in the back of his throat and aimed a kick at the boy, who dodged. "Why would I want to have anything to do with you? You are nothing but a useless little freak! You have the audacity to ask me to become your father, I should never have taken you, I should have left you to die in that cupboard it was no less than you deserved!" Harry was crying, eyes shut whispering 'no, no, no' and Sirius was not in a much better condition. There was absolutely no way he could find humour in such a situation so he did the next best thing. A stream of red shot out from his palm and into the chest of fake Sirius, making him roll away down the corridor until he was out of sight and he did not reappear.
Harry whirled around, looking for the source of the attacker until he saw him and his eyes widened in relief and confusion. His eyes were red with crying; Sirius made a small noise in the back of his throat, whether it was out of surprise, annoyance, or worry, he didn't know, and sat knelt down. "Harry," he said soothingly, "it's ok now, it's gone, come here okay?" Harry did not need any further encouragement before he practically flew across the room and into his godfather's waiting arms where he burrowed his face into his chest and sobbed. Sirius's heart constricted with passive pain and not knowing what else to do sat down with the boy on his lap and rocked him slowly, whispering sweet nothings until all his whimpering subsided. It echoed in his mind that this boy's greatest fear had been rejection from him.
"What was that thing?" Harry asked timidly, not leaving the comfort of his godfather's arms, his voice was even smaller than usual; Sirius had to strain to hear it.
"It was called a boggart, you must forgive me Harry I had forgotten that it was here, I did take time before I came for you to get rid of things like that. It is a dark creature that feeds of fear; it changes into what the one viewing it fears the most, which is why it turned into your uncle. You are a smart boy and when you informed it that your uncle was not here it changed into me. It wasn't me though, I would never send you away or regret taking you in. I am sorry you were frightened Harry but it's gone now and I'll find it before you get hurt again." Sirius leaned forward, "So," Sirius began, "what was that question that you asked me? I promise I'm paying attention."
The child paused, bit his lip, and glanced up at Sirius shyly. "Are you... that is... are... are you... my new Daddy?"
Sirius choked, not sure exactly what to say to that. On one hand it was a dream come true the child accepted him so quickly, on the other he felt like he was betraying James. No, it was a stupid thought, you can't betray someone who's dead. "I – erm… I could be," came the hesitant response. Harry's head shot up to stare at his godfather. "I promised your father, years and years ago that I'd take his place if anything ever happened… and–"
"You want me," Harry's voice didn't break. "You want me?"
Harry stared at his godfather's unusually serious expression; despite his namesake "I wouldn't even contemplate choosing anyone else to be my heir." The child, of course, had no idea what an heir was, or what contemplate meant, but, nonetheless, he threw himself at his godfather. He actually had a Dad now. Just like everyone else did but he'd probably still call him Sirius or Padfoot like he had been before. It took Harry a moment to realize that he was actually crying. And he tightened his hold on his godfathers – on his Dad's robes as he buried his face in his shoulders He felt hisdad run a hand through his hair, never before had he ever had anyone who truly wanted him. "I love you Harry, I'd be honoured to be your father."
"Harry," he heard his Dad, clear his throat, "um, let's find that deck of exploding snap cards, huh?" Harry nodded but didn't make any move to sit up. Turns out that it didn't seem to matter since the man merely wrapped his own arms around him and lifted him up – Harry was quick to tighten his hold on him to keep from falling. Sirius was not sure what to do when placed in an awkward situation but he'd had plenty of practise getting out of them so he used that talent instead. "My old room is a bit musty," he said, walking him out of Regulus' old room. "But there should still be an old pack of Exploding Snap cards in there – at least, there was some when I last checked, but who knows what my mother did with them when I left."
Harry swallowed heavily, sniffled, and pulled slightly on Sirius' hair in an attempt to grab his attention, "Do they really explode?" he asked quietly.
He felt, more than saw, his Dad chuckle, "If you don't play the game right," he said, "but it won't hurt in the least." For a moment, only the soft footfalls were heard as Sirius crossed the hallway and opened his old room's door. It creaked ominously. But Harry didn't have enough time to ponder on that as he felt his feet hit the solid wood flooring as Sirius bent down. He glanced up at the dark haired man in confusion, but he merely gave him a smile and nodded to the room.
The next day Harry could not help but noticing that Sirius seemed... off, distracted. Eventually he asked what the matter was. "Kreacher's been missing too long," he said eventually, "I'm worried about him."
"Uncle Vernon sometimes went on weeklong fishing trips or camping holidays with the company he worked with," Harry offered.
Sirius snorted despite his worry, "Kreacher is not fishing or camping, though he may be with someone he is not meant to be with." The Malfoys would not lower themselves to kidnapping elves for answers, besides, he could just apparate away, that leaves someone powerful enough to apprehend him or familiar enough that he would not want to escape too badly, so that leaves either Dumbledore or Remus. But then again, Dumbledore could have given him to any order member. "Come on Harry," he said, bounding up the stairs to the guest bedroom which Kreacher resided in, "after our shaky start we now rather like each other, he can't have gone by choice, he must have left me some kind of clue. Go through everything," he said, leafing through the books to see if anything was hidden in the pages, "tell me if you find anything."
Of course Harry had no idea what he was looking for but dutifully copied him by leafing through the books. Eventually, he found something, it was a tooth like the one Remus always wore around his neck as an ironic totem of such, in fact it was that tooth, the culprit it would seem, was found. "Harry, listen to me carefully, I need to go for a little bit, I won't be longer than an hour, I promise, stay here and read or something, do not leave the room." Well it would not be disastrous if he left the room and he granted him entrance to the en-suite bathroom of course, but it would be a bad idea to give him free reign of the house, if he was as much of a danger magnet as he and James were as kids, he'd probably find the boggart again at the very least.
Sirius apparated to end up in Remus' living room, he was surprised there were no wards up. Seconds later Remus walked into the room dressed in a dressing gown and slippers, holding a steaming mug of something that smelled like tomato, the only thing missing from that picture was a pipe. He had to smile. "A mug of tomato soup Remus, you really are an old man," he lazily noted Remus had not drawn his wand, hell, he didn't even look surprised. He sat down on the sofa, passing a hairbreadth away like they used to, as if they were old friends... as if they were still old friends, and gestured to Sirius to take a seat too.
"Where's Harry?" He asked as soon as they were seated. He was as blunt as ever, the sitting down first was a careful technique to disguise impatience.
"It's none of your business."
"It most certainly is!"
"It is not!" He affirmed. "You more or less betrayed James, Lily and the Prongslet as well as me via inaction. You left him with abusive relatives, you've seen the papers, I know you have or you would not be asking me this, when you should have taken him in! I am his Godfather, in fact, I am his father from now on, and I shall look after him the way he deserves!"
Remus was hurt by his words, but Sirius felt no sympathy, "very well," he said, although it was clear he was not happy about it.
"Where's my elf?"
"None of your business," he bit back.
"If it isn't my business, then whose business is it?"
Remus had no answer to that. "You let me see Harry and I'll tell you where your elf is."
"How about you tell me where my elf is, and I won't leak your furry problem to the press."
There was a heartbeat pause then Remus glared at him, "you wouldn't."
"I do not feel things like regret anymore. I hung Hagrid upside down to get my bike back, I tied you to a chair and beat you, do you really think I would not do this?" He was not sure himself if he would ever do this, because once this was over he really did want Remus back.
Remus blinked, his eyes flicked left before hardening, "I don't believe you." But he had already told him what he wanted to know. He turned around and practically flew into the small room Remus had looked at and found to his relief a very alive Kreacher seated on the ground looking extremely disgruntled. "You alright there Kreacher," he said casually as if he had only been missing a couple of hours to disguise how worried he'd actually been about the little elf. Mentioned elf's head shot up and he saw that he had to stop from throwing himself at his master.
"Master came for Kreacher!" He sounded almost surprised, which irked him, "Kreacher knew master would come! Kreacher did not tell the nasty werewolf about where we be staying, Kreacher was caught at Gringotts; they did not even manage to find out with the nasty veritaserum. Kreacher waited, he knew master would come for him!"
"Why did you not just apparate back to me Kreacher, I have Harry now, we need you."
"Kreacher asked that too, master, so he did not."
Oh, of course. His elf. His bloody brilliant elf. Remus knew elves could apparate out of almost anywhere, of course Kreacher could not apparate, he must have known something was up. Sirius scanned his elf's eyes before he saw it; there was a tracking charm on him. It took a wave of his hand to remove it. "Go home and introduce yourself to Harry Kreacher, he's in Regulus' bedroom, I'll be along later." He watched Kreacher disappear before turning to Remus was a murderous glint in his eye, "that was a very stupid thing you did Remus, taking my elf, you should know by now not to take things that belong to me, I'm likely to get... irritable."
Remus gulped, because Sirius looked truly dangerous, "now, listen Sirius," he said in a placating tone, holding his hands in a 'surrender' pose. "You must bear in mind that I only did it because I'm worried about Harry. I don't know why you have no ill will towards him although I am glad, but I do not intend to kidnap him, I doubt I would live if I tried and I don't want to try and get you arrested again, I am thinking maybe you are not as guilty as we all thought. I just wanted to get your attention. I promise you, my intentions are more than honourable."
Sirius was unmoved, "I suggest you rid yourself of any intentions." He towered over him, "I thought you learnt your lesson the first time I visited you, obviously I was too lenient." He grabbed a handful of the robes at his chest and slammed him against the wall, "this is your last warning. Cross me again and I swear I will not let our past friendship stop me from doing something you may regret." Talking of which, he had actual death eaters to catch. He threw Remus to the floor, forcing himself not to do anymore, he tossed his tooth after him, he had no need for it after all. He apparated straight away, but he didn't go home, not yet, Harry would forgive him for staying out later than intended, he had Kreacher to look after him, no, he had anger to burn off.
Lucius knew something was wrong as soon as he entered his home. He had the feeling he did when he was in the kitchen and it turned out Dobby was in the oven, that prickling feeling of being watched but no matter how much you spin around trying to find the offending pair of eyes, no one is to be seen. He was not scared; of course he wasn't, it was entirely inappropriate for someone as powerful and as dangerous and as influential as him to be frightened. He was once the right hand man of Voldemort, or at least part of his inner circle, and once Voldemort regained his power as he was sure he would one day, he would be back on that pedestal. Despite that title he was also held in high regard in the ministry.
He had fooled the crackpots into believing he was under the imperius curse and gotten away with it, he was not frightened of anything and yet… he scast a glance around the room suspiciously, trying to act unperturbed. He was not scared; he was just uncomfortable with the feeling of not being as alone as he appeared to be. He gulped as he carefully removed his cloak and hung it on the back of the door to his personal study, whenever a muggle had this feeling it was usually paranoia affecting them, when a wizard has the feeling of being watched, he was being watched. He thought only those who were blood kin or those he personally welcomed could get into his home at all. He did not have wards up for no reason, they were meant to be impenetrable.
Someone was in his own home spying on him for some reason, in his study in fact, watching him, and it was someone he did not know which meant it was someone he did not welcome. He did not have very many enemies, prestige and power counted for a lot, but the ones he did have were out for no less than blood. He wanted to shout out for the person to show themselves and drop the invisibility or notice me not charms they must have up so he could face the offender face on but something stopped him from doing so. His study was not large, barely 6 metres squared, after all he only came in here to... well... study. Then suddenly he felt magic flow over him as someone unseen cast a silent charm, or dropped a charm or flashed his core to make his presence known.
All of a sudden the door to his study slammed shut and locked itself. The feeling of fear crept into the pit of his stomach as he strode over to the door but before he reached it the figure of one Sirius Black standing in front of the door to his study, leaning against it casually, arms crossed over his chest became visible to him and he was stopped in his tracks. Then he came to his senses and drew his wand, all the time realising that the man could have killed him a hundred times by now and for some reason he still had not thrown up a shield despite knowing that someone was in his house watching him. Sirius was faster and waved his left hand at him, he had not drawn a wand himself, he did not have one, and he did not say a word, he did not need to.
Lucius felt the effects of the crucatious curse wash over him as affectively as if he had yelled it. He managed to prevent himself from screaming, but he did drop his wand and fell to the ground in an ungraceful heap spasming from the pain. He was in shock, had never dreamed goody, goody Sirius Black would ever cast an unforgivable, he was no death eater, but seeming as he had used neither wand, nor incantation, and he really, really wished he knew how he had done that, was 'cast' really the correct term? While he was still gasping for breath, Sirius walked over to him, stepping on his wand, effectively breaking it. He then waved his hand once more, performing yet more mysterious wand-less magic and Lucius was lifted like a puppet held by invisible strings and thrown into his chair from which ropes sprung, binding him to it.
Throughout it all neither man said a word; Lucius just wore an expression of outrage and fear while Sirius smirked at him. Lucius was the one to break the silence, finally coming around from the effects of the crucio. "How are you doing this? You have no wand!"
"I know," came the quiet reply, and his voice was chilling, "but as you can clearly see, I find that I do not need a wand to carry out the magic I wish to perform." He swept all of his carefully organised papers off of his desk and positioned himself cross legged in front of him on said desk, staring into his eyes. This was perhaps more frightening than if he had placed himself ominously behind him in a more textbook intimidating location than this almost childish spot, but Sirius had never been with sticking to the norms and it was certainly working. With Sirius staring into his eyes he could not look away without making it painfully obvious that he was doing so.
Sirius transfigured a cup and poured some tea into it. "My own invention of the aqua spell," he said in a conversational tone as way of explanation, "makes tea instead of water – got to drink it quick though because it will disappear after a while, which is hard because of course it's hot, very English of me I know." He reached into his robes and brought out a small vial, then poured the contents into the cup and Lucius thought he was going to be forced to drink it when Sirius took a great gulp of the contents himself before handing it over and gestured for Lucius to drink too. Seeming as Sirius had just downed half the contents himself he was assured it was not poisoned, and not wanting to suffer another 'crucio' he did as he was bid.
"I guess you are wondering why I am here dear cousin in law," Sirius said with a feral smile and Lucius suddenly got the feeling that he knew very well why he was here and did not like it.
"No, I'm not," he said, "I'm wondering what you drugged me with."
"That will become apparent soon enough. Now I'm going to ask you some questions and you are going to answer me, is that clear?"
Lucius nodded, "are you going to kill me?"
Sirius blinked before shaking his head. "No, I'm not going to kill you. I am going to make you confess to being a death eater and not under the imperius curse like you claimed and get you arrested so you can suffer like I did, but you deserve it."
"And you are saying you don't?"
"You are a death eater Lucius; you know I am not one of you. Now, tell me, were you under the imperius curse when you did the Dark Lord's bidding?"
Even though every fibre in the blond's body wanted him to say yes he ended up saying no, then, "it was veritaserum in the tea, wasn't it. Why did you take it as well?"
"Because I am innocent, I was imprisoned wrongly, Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper to the Potters, not I, I was the decoy, he is still alive and framed me before cutting off his finger, blowing up the street, transforming into a rat and escaping, and I want to prove it."
"To me? I already know you are innocent."
"I know, but the ministry doesn't, and they are the ones I need to make see."
"They'll never admit to making such a mistake, they'd sooner kill an innocent man before word got out about their incompetence."
"Again, I know, but I'm a lot more powerful than before as you can see, the ministry do not stand a chance. Question number two, did you willingly torture and or kill muggles, muggle borns and/or aurors whilst under Voldemort's rule?"
"I did," he winced at the name and the truth that was coming to light.
"Do you still follow him and his ideals?"
"I will join him should he return to power."
"That's all I need to know for now. Just because I'm nosy, have you ever cheated on my cousin?"
"Yes, once, with Bellatrix."
"You cheated on her with her sister!" Sirius practically collapsed with laughter, "you don't get much lower than that, I cannot believe I actually got an affirmative answer, I just wanted to make you feel uncomfortable, I cannot wait until this becomes a public scandal, I can see it now, you in Azkaban, divorced, Narcissa a single mother."
"Why did you ask me that?"
"For the fun of it."
"What do you get out of this?"
"I was wondering when you would ask that. I've brewed my own special brand of penseive. When you put your memories into it will play them in front of you instead of waiting for you to dip your head into the silvery water. In a second I am going to stun you and leave you bound and gagged in the minter of magic's office with this memory playing above you. I do not expect the good minister to retract the hunt on me, I will capture the rat first, then there will be no room for argument, but I do expect you to be arrested. Stupefy!"
When he got home Harry was asleep on the sofa in the lounge, a tired looking Kreacher next to him. "He refused to go to bed until you got back," the elf informed him, "where did you go?"
"I had an errand to run." He picked up the boy from the sofa and he half woke up as he gathered him in his arms, "hush," he said, "I got back late, I'm sorry," but he could not be around when he was angry, "I'm taking you to bed, just go back to sleep Harry."
A week later it was common knowledge Lucius had been arrested, Narcissa was being questioned and their son, Draco his name was, was going to be living with his Godfather Severus Snape until further notice, although Sirius suspected Narcissa would get her son back soon. He did not miss how similar Draco and Harry's situation was now. He was not sure how much better a Snape raised Draco would be then a Malfoy one, but there was not a lot he could do about it. Somehow he doubted he would gain custody, not that he wanted it. However, with his father in jail he might be able to get out of becoming a death eater. It had been stupidly easy to enter Malfoy's house and the office of the minister of magic, he was not so sure about his next target.
With their leader gone, Zabini, Crabbe and Goyle would be easy to take down. The only reason they were not in jail was Malfoy's money, now it was no longer protecting them he probably would not even need Veritaserum. Well Zabini might be difficult, they were a very slippery family, truly slytherins to the end, but Crabbe and Goyle were idiots. They were protecting the Parkinsons, God knows why or how, Nott and Avery may pose a problem, the rest had more or less returned to the light after Voldemort died, or at least been neutral. After that, nobody could stop him except the dark lord; he would have struck fear into their hearts.